The countdown to ‘silly season’ has begun! Christmas is a golden opportunity for businesses to boost sales and build lasting relationships with customers.
On the flip side, this time of year also brings its challenges when many of your team may be on leave for an extended period.
Partnering with a digital marketing agency can help streamline your processes, ensuring your brand not only thrives during Christmas but also hits the ground running in the New Year. Here’s our guide on how to prepare and optimise your digital marketing strategy for the season.
Christmas Specials
Christmas shopping is often influenced by discounts and deals. Including vouchers or offers in your strategy can be a fantastic way to attract customers and increase sales.
- Digital Vouchers: Consider offering e-vouchers. These are ideal for last-minute gift ideas, as opposed to a physical voucher sent by snail mail. Our clients typically see an influx of voucher sales on the days leading up to Christmas.
- Exclusive Discounts: Thinking of running promotions for Black Friday or a January sale? By collaborating with your digital marketing agency, you can run targeted campaigns. When launched early, you can also catch the early-bird shoppers.
- Social Media Promotions: Use your social media to create buzz around your limited time offers.
Pro Tip: By offering exclusive discounts or early access to promotions to your email database, you can increase your email marketing database.
Prepare for January
Ideally, January sales and campaigns should be thought about and planned in December to be ahead in the game.
The post-Christmas/January period is an ideal time for sales as your target audience will be on the lookout for promotions. Planning your January sale with a digital marketing agency can help you maintain momentum after the festive season. We can help with:
- Teaser Campaigns: In December, start teasing your January sale to keep customers engaged beyond Christmas.
- Email Marketing: Use email lists to announce exclusive sale previews.
- Analytics-Driven Offers: Analyse trends and identify products/services likely to sell well during January sales.
Christmas Coverage
Managing operations when staff are on leave can be tricky, but your digital presence shouldn’t take a break!
At Sprint Digital, we can help you with:
- Automated Campaigns: Schedule email campaigns, social media posts and ads, and PPC campaigns in advance to maintain consistency.
- Advertising Spend: We keep an eye on your advertising spend and monitor ad performance while your team is away.
- Content Calendar: Develop a social media content calendar with pre-approved posts, ensuring your brand remains active.
Keeping an Eye on Budgets and Engagement
Overspending or losing track of engagement during Christmas is a common pitfall. We can help you stay in control of your campaigns while you celebrate Christmas.
We use tools including Google Analytics and Meta Ads Manager to monitor your real-time performance.
Settle Back In
Returning to work after Christmas can be daunting – an overflowing inbox, gloomy weather, and back to the daily grind (as well as no more selection boxes left to enjoy!).
A well-thought-out plan with your digital marketing agency can make the transition smooth.
- Content Bank: Prepare a backlog of evergreen content to keep your social media channels active while your team settle back into work.
- Kick-off Meetings: Schedule strategy meetings with your digital marketing agency in early January to review Christmas performance and plan for the year ahead.
- Customer Follow-Ups: Use email marketing to re-engage customers who interacted with your brand during Christmas, thanking them for their support and sharing what’s next for your brand.
Planning for the Year Ahead
The start of a new year is the perfect time to recalibrate your marketing strategy.
Let your digital marketing agency know your aspirations, ideas, thoughts and goals for the year ahead – we are here to bring your brand from strength to strength.
At our monthly client calls, we will review:
- Performance Review: We analyse the success of your Christmas campaigns to identify strengths and areas for improvement.
- Emerging Trends: We advise our clients of new trends that would work for their brand to stay ahead of their competitors.
- Audience Insights: We use data gathered from your past campaigns to refine future brand campaigns.
Are you Christmas Ready?
By partnering with a digital marketing agency, your business can navigate any challenges with confidence. From crafting irresistible offers like vouchers and sales to maintaining a strong digital presence while your team takes a well-deserved on break – preparation is key!
Lastly, and most importantly, use your down time to enjoy the festivities, stay safe and have fun during the Christmas season. A well-rested team will return rejuvenated, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to tackle the year ahead.
